Colle di Val d’Elsa
Colle is centuries old but also has a solid 20th century workers’ tradition. Industrial activity isexpressed in a highly selective and civilised way, in continuity with the craft tradition: the paper mills and glassworks, founded in the middle ages, are proof of this. Thanks to Green Engineering and the local administration, Colle is also a base of the University of Siena, with whom Green Engineering founded a research center on Biosystems and materials technology (the PUC). Colle Val d’Elsa is divided in two. The lower part is 20th century while the upper, mediaeval part speaks of traditions connected with the land. Its many towers, largely cut down and transformed into aristocratic residences during the Renaissance, speak of this courtly spirit which even today seems to keep a desired distance from the confused movements of our time. Colle, with its
“Castle” ensconced in the cradling village, tells a story of artisans and nascent industry in the economy of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and shows how much we have inherited rather than invented. In Val d’Elsa history is an open book whose pages are turned while chatting with the locals, breathing in the scent of the greenery, savouring flavours and being enchanted by the countryside. Here, as throughout Tuscany, each bit of the landscape has been modelled by man - traced with orderly vineyards, dotted with silver olive trees and decorated with artworks – to make the best use of resources without depleting them. Clearly, the only modern aspect of sustainability is the urgency it has assumed. Living out history here means performing routine tasks with a kind of centuries-old perspective.
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